NAOKI YOSHIDA
FAR EAST OF EDEN III
Developer Red Company Publisher Hudson Soft Format PC-FX Release Unreleased
BOMBERMAN 64: THE SECOND ATTACK
Developer Hudson Soft Publisher Vatical Entertainment Format N64 Release 1997
DRAGON QUEST: MONSTER BATTLE ROAD
Developer Rocket Studio, Eighting Publisher Square Enix Format Taito Type X2 Release 2007
FINAL FANTASY XIV: A REALM REBORN
Developer/publisher Square Enix Format PC, PS3, PS4 Release 2013
FINAL FANTASY XIV: HEAVENSWARD
Developer/publisher Square Enix Format PC, PS3, PS4 Release 2015
Naoki Yoshida is the architect of the Japanese game industry’s greatest comeback story since the original Final Fantasy game. Having cut his teeth at Square Enix on the Dragon Quest series, he led efforts to rescue the catastrophic Final Fantasy XIV, eventually transforming it into an MMO on par with the mighty World Of Warcraft. A scenario writer at heart, Yoshida crafted a reputation for adaptability and tenacity in the 1990s, though he has seen his fair share of disappointments. Here, he reflects on the many frustrations and surprises of a career spent steering or salvaging troubled projects.
FAR EAST OF EDEN III
Developer Red Company Publisher Hudson Soft Format PC-FX Release Unreleased
The first game I worked on was never released. I started my career at Hudson Soft in 1996. The company is famous for the Far East Of Eden series – when I joined, they were in the middle of development for the third one. The scenario had been completed, and the first thing I was asked to do was to take a massive amount of documents, all the text for the scenario, read everything through, then come back the next day to give everyone feedback. I think I was tasked to read through the main scenario because when I joined the company, I said that I wanted to be a scenario writer – it was a test to see what ideas I could come up with.
The text was massive, but I read it through overnight and made a report combining how I interpreted the was for the PC-FX from NEC, and NEC suddenly made the announcement that they would stop selling PC-FX. So there was no way for us to create this game – was actually regarded as the key title for PC-FX.
